Pint of Science 2025 | Dirty Duck, Coventry
Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies (University of Warwick)
Carlos Cámara-Menoyo
Senior Research Software Engineer
1. Geodesy
Is what figuring out where things are and how to record them. Focus is on mathematical foundations (coordinates, Earth’s shape).
This was once a huge scientific enterprise, today this is done by satellite and most of us, even very specialist geographers don’t have to think about it very much.
Keywords: precision, geolocation, GPS, LIDAR, coordinates system…
2. Cartogrpahy
Is how we visualize information about things in the world on maps .
The history of cartography is long and detailed, and the question of what was mapped by whom has dramatically shaped the modern world.
Keywords: projections, shapes, size, colour…
Governments
Motivation: public service
Official maps
Companies
Motivation: Business model.
Specific, detailed maps, related to their business model.
Individuals!
Motivation: diverse Coverage and precision: diverse
Each map involves a series of decisions that are anything but objective
No projection is perfect! Projection is an ‘unsolvable problem’ in that however we do it we are going to end up with some distortion somewhere on our map.
All maps are political and anything but neutral:
Either way, they influence/impact other people’s lifes, especially in less privileged/underrepresented population:
There’s a long history of maps and power ILLUSTRATIVE MAP HERE?
Can Digital Goods Be Neutral? Evaluating OpenStreetMap’s equity through participatory data visualisation
Use data visualisations to understand whether these decisions had a positive or negative impact in under-represented communities.
Major Sites: Amazon, Apple, Baidu Maps, Facebook, Microsoft, Wikipedia and Wikimedia
Transport: Air France, Alaska Airlines, Deutsche Bahn, Grab, SNCF (French rail agency), Uber Geodata Software and Services: CARTO, Digital Globe, ESRI, Garmin, Mapbox, Telenav
Government: Agence Française de Développement , Government of Brazil, Government of Italy: President’s Office, Police Scotland, US National Park Service, US State Department, USAID, Peace Corps….
Participatory research: teaming with GeoChicas and workshops
GeoChicas is a collective of feminist women linked to OpenStreetMap, originally Spanish-speaking, who work for women’s empowerment and the reduction of the gender gap in OpenStreetMap communities and in communities associated with the world of free software and open data.
Image of the dashboard
You are invited!
link:
ADD SLIDES’ URL!!!!